Saddle Mountain Shaded Fuel Break and Forest Thinning
At the instruction of Sonoma Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District (Sonoma Ag & OSD), Hanford performed tasks aimed at 1. Understory thinning and 2. A shaded fuel break at Saddle Mountain Open Space Preserve in Santa Rosa, California. All have been impacted to varying degrees by the 2020 Glass Fire with significant understory mortality and patchy overstory mortality.
The goal for the shaded fuel break was as follows: manage and maintain roadsides that improve fire holding capacity during wild and prescribed fires and safe ingress and egress for firefighters. The result is a “shaded fuel break” with canopy remaining where it occurs and with some allowance for limited understory shrubs and ground cover for habitat purposes and to allow for tree recruitment. The goal for the forest thinning was as follows: thin oaks, bays, madrones, and select conifers. Preference was to cut bays and Douglas-fir. Slash was either chipped or piled for burning in designated locations that would not result in unacceptably high fuel loading.
While performing this project, Hanford worked with Sonoma Ag & OSD to adhere to Saddle Mountain’s Best Management Practices and Resource Protection Mitigations. This included protecting special-status bats, protecting nesting birds, avoiding impacts to cultural resources, avoiding loss of special-status plants and their habitats (e.g.: Napa false indigo), preventing the spread of invasive species, and preventing the spread of sudden oak death.
